$4 million jolt for city's Safe Streets

New funding puts police in high-crime areas.

Dana Treen

As a fresh flow of dollars is infused into the Jacksonville Journey, police hope a flood of officers can repeat the success of a spring anti-crime initiative described as a "door-to-door approach to preventing murder."

Beginning this month, a $4 million injection of overtime money has allowed the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office to restart its Operation Safe Streets, which combines elements of community policing with an effort to target crime hot spots and violent criminals.

Sheriff John Rutherford said the first redeployment began Oct. 11, following several months of cobbling together a contingent of about two dozen police to fill the role after an earlier block of overtime money was spent.

From Feb. 1 to May 31, Safe Streets used $3 million in overtime money to add 60 to 75 officers to shifts in crime hot spots. The officers tracked violent criminals while also reaching out to the community in an effort to build a partnership with those most affected by crime.

"What really goes up and down with the funding is the manpower," Rutherford said.

According to statistics from the Sheriff's Office, neighborhoods where Safe Streets was deployed this spring saw drops in murder and firearm-related incidents compared with the same period in 2007.

Murders in the targeted neighborhoods dropped 29 percent in 2008 compared with the same February-through-May stretch in 2007. Firearm-related incidents dropped 3 percent. In a citywide comparison, murder dropped 15 percent while firearm-related incidents rose 7 percent, according to statistics from the Sheriff's Office.

While there were fewer murder and gun crimes in the target areas, the number of arrests citywide declined slightly or remained unchanged.

A Sheriff's Office comparison showed bigger drops when the four months in 2008 were compared with the preceding four months - Oct. 1, 2007, through Jan. 31, 2008. Murder decreased 20 percent and firearm-related incidents dropped almost 25 percent.

The Safe Streets concept was first deployed in 2006, shortly after 8-year-old DreShawna Davis was killed by a stray bullet in her Northwest Jacksonville house. The city gave the sheriff $5 million for additional patrols in dangerous neighborhoods and the rate of homicides dropped.

"If you look at the second half of 2006, I think murder went down 38 percent," Rutherford said. He said a jump in murders in 2007 - from 110 in 2006 to 123 in 2007 - was due in part because "we didn't have an Operation Safe Streets."

But he said it's not the total answer. Those extra patrols have to be combined with other crime-prevention and intervention programs and projects such as helping those newly released from jail find jobs.

The Sheriff's Office would not identify the Safe Streets neighborhoods targeted this year because operations in some of those areas have resumed. That classified them as part of an ongoing investigation, said Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Laurie-Ellen Smith.

City Councilman Warren Jones said he knows Safe Streets officers were in parts of his Northwest Jacksonville council district in the spring.

"It's a mixed bag," he said of the impact. Jones said at least two neighborhoods have different perspectives on whether they are safer.

In one area, an effort to close a street is being met with opposition because the street provides an outlet that does not pass through another neighborhood known for violent crime.

"In that community, I have not seen any changes with the Safe Streets initiative," he said.

Around Edward Waters College and in a section called North Riverside between Interstate 10 and Beaver Street, Jones said students and residents tell him they feel safer after seeing a police presence.

"I don't know if it is a reality, but perception is a reality," he said. "They have seen a reduction in violence when police are going around knocking on doors."

The approach increased officer visibility while also supporting ongoing investigations in the hot spot zones.

Jones said part of the Jacksonville Journey objective is to continue to bolster police presence.

"Hopefully next summer we can see the community policing on a regular basis," he said.

And without overtime.

"What we are doing is a very expensive way to pay for community police," he said.

The Jacksonville Journey is a $31 million anti-crime initiative that will add new police officers.

Rutherford wants to hire 225 new officers over five years.

"Until we get the numbers out there, all 225, we're still going to have to look at special assignments and putting people into those targeted areas," he said.